Along The Silver Sands

Along the Silver Sands
By Chantal Beaulne

The light cut the surface of the ocean in beams, descending deep into its dark depths. It shone with pure innocence, reaching into the inky black to find a flash of silver. A face appeared. It was youthful and naïve, a face that knew nothing of the horrors of the world, only its wonders and joys. Her silver hair billowed in the light, catching the sunlight. She kicked her long, scaly tail, swimming closer to the surface, enjoying the warmth that her father, the king of all merpeople, had forbidden her to see. She gave a giggle, showing her sharp, tiny teeth. She twisted in the turquoise water, swimming into the colourful reef.

It was full of life! A clown fish peeked out of its pink anemone, watching the mermaid swim by with great kicks of her tail. A school of angelfish swarmed around her, while a shark and remora watched her with dead eyes. She gave another laugh, bubbles escaping her flapping gills.

She swam on into the kelp forest, which really was a forest, with the great ropes of kelp stretching towards the surface above. It was full of light and shadow, darkly mysterious.
Seadra swam in without a thought. Three shadows moved out of the darkness, swimming towards her at the speeds of  torpedos. They swam around her, clicking with glee. She spoke to them in their own language, whistling and clicking with them.

Seadra! cried the dolphins. Play with us! Play with us! You gone for many moonsets!

Papa forbade me to go close to the surface. He said a sea serpent would get me if I did. But I missed you, Typhoon, and of course you too, Tsunami and Dragonfish.

There no slither-scale here! Just dolphins! Play with us! Play with us!

Seadra needed little more prompting. The dolphins grabbed a piece of kelp and commenced playing “tag”.  Typhoon, the biggest dolphin, raced through the forest clutching the strand of plant in his teeth, the others racing after him, trying to tag him.


It was a merry dance through blackened waters and sun streamed ones, full of the excited echolocations of the child-minded creatures. Tsunami snatched the kelp from Typhoon, turning towards the surface to escape the oncoming Dragonfish. Suddenly he stopped, clicking in a panic. He dropped the kelp and began to power swim away in terror. Seadra grabbed onto Dragonfish’s dorsal fin as the dolphins made a mad dash to escape the only thing under the sea that a dolphin feared.

There was nothing ecstatic or child-like in their fierce aquabatics as the huge black and white shadow gave chase.

Seadra looked back to see a huge, horrible eye of white. She wanted to scream as it’s fierce whistles and clicks washed over them, betraying their location to the rightly named Killer Whale.
It’s mountainous, powerful black body chased them out of the protective forest into the dangerous open ocean. Its great maw showed it thousands of jagged incisors, opening wide to catch the floundering Tsunami, the slowest of them all.

No! cried Seadra, releasing Dragon’s fin and kicking with all her might towards the giant monster. She saw the white patch that she had thought its eye and dived underneath, towards the dark pit of sinister glittering intelligence. It looked up; saw the silver streak – but too late! As its jaws were about to snap down upon Tsunami, she rammed into the eye, tearing at it with black claws and her pearly teeth, screaming in fury. The whale screamed in pain and fury, creating waves as it thrashed through the water, blood seeping from its ruined eye, spiralling down into the void.

DragonFish came out of nowhere to seize Seadra again, carrying her from the spasming form of blubber and strength that could have snapped her in two. Seadra was in shock, her slit like pupils wide and dilated, her gills flapping madly in the churning water.
They raced far from the screaming monster behind them, still shivering in the water.


After feverish swimming, the dolphins finally slowed, far from their near deaths. They headed upward, breaking the surface. Mist blew from their blowholes with a gasping noise. They were safe. For now.

Papa was right, Seadra thought, recovering from her terror. There was a monster up here.

But what she did not realize was that the orcas and sharks were not what the King had feared when he had tried to frighten her to staying within the palace.

The dolphins were almost recovered, and although some of their fear remained, they began complaining about how hungry they were, bumping into one another playfully. Seadra too felt better. Her Father had thought she might have been killed by that beast, but she was not! She, Seadra the Silver, had defeated a mountain! When she arrived home, she would be a heroine! 

She looked around in wonder. The water ended. How it could it end? She had known nothing but water all her life. What was this now? It was lighter, and seemed… she could not describe it. Her hair, which had been free in the water, now seemed heavy. But as the air pushed into it, she felt as if she was changing substances. Her hair flew back freely now, shrouding her vision as she saw, for the first time, the sky. It was a separate sea, with white caps of its own. Seadra stared up at the sun, seeing now the source of the light she loved so much.

It…burns.. She thought in wonder. It burned hot and, though she did not know the word, dryly.

She saw the surface of her vast ocean. And she saw something else.

It was not in the sky, but nor was it in the sea. It existed between them, fighting and working with both, rising mysteriously out of the sea.

The dolphins began to chatter. There was a mass of fish gathering in a school so huge that it surpassed imagination. The dolphins chattered elatedly. They had been going hungry for a while. The fish were seeming disappearing from the ocean, leaving many dolphins hungry. And now, a cloud of fat herring and tuna had amassed!

Seadra became excited too. Even those at the palace had felt the blow dealt to the fish population. Her stomach joined in with the thunder of the others, her ribs clearly visible.

Dragonfish, the swiftest of them all, whistled a challenge. Let see who catch most fish! On mark, set, go!!

And they were off, having fun once more, the dolphins feasting on the scrumptious fish with Seadra tearing into her share as well. Never had she eaten so!

There lots more here! Tsunami called to them, the water thick with fish. I beat you, Dra-

His voice cut out. 

Where Tsunami? Typhoon demanded, darting towards where his whistles had been coming. Tsunami caught! There funny-string, twisty – everywhere! I help!

But in his frantic tries to free his comrade, he too became entangled in the strange billowing black squares that had ensnared many fish.

Seadra raced to use her clawed hands to free them, Dragonfish calling for her mates.

They tore at the nets, trying to cut them free, but to no avail. They cried out for air, slowly suffocating in their netted prisons, churning the water as great fists crushed the life out of them. Seadra ripped at the nets, trying desperately –

Then, suddenly, they were being wrenched into the air, dripping water. Seadra held on to the net, hissing in fury.

“ What the.. yo, Liam! I think we picked up a couple of dolphins down there!”

“ That’s not all you picked up. What the hell is that?”

“Oh my G**!It..is it?”

Seadra snarled at the strange creatures below her. She warbled and snarled in her own language, demanding that her friends be set free. They looked a bit like merpeople, but they were fleshy and their tails were split in two.

At that moment, her claws finally slipped from the net, plunging her towards the ocean below.

“Quick, the other net, Ben!”

She plunged into the ocean, churning the water. She attempted to swim away from the fishing boat, but found herself in a cloud of netting. It caught on her fins, her billowing hair, her sharp claws, tangling itself inside her gills, choking her. The net was hauled to the surface, water pouring downward. She was caught, ensnared in man’s web.

She was hauled aboard, kicking and screaming. The boat began rocking like mad as her muscled form went crazy. The fishermen endeavoured to hit her on the head with a blunt object, but she was like a devilfish, never staying still for a moment. Her claws began to saw against this weaker net, snapping the cords that entwined about her. She was free. She saw the net with her dolphin friends hanging loosely, their bodies oddly still.

She turned towards the men, shouting and screaming. One had a slender metal tube, pointed at her. The other stood in front of the net, yelling a t his comrade. She had to get to her friends, to cut them loose from their prison.

“ Liam! It’s looking at me! Kill it, kill it, kill it!” Ben screamed, frozen to the spot in terror. 

The mermaid flopped around the deck screaming madly as it clawed itself upright, standing on her serpentine tail

“I c-can’t! It.. it looks like a kid! I can’t s-shoot a k-kid!”

At that moment, Seadra made a breathy roar, deep and guttural, and lunged for the net, with Ben just underneath. Liam felt as if the world slowed. He saw the fish-thing push off the deck with it’s snake like tail, saw its teeth flash, it’s dark claws extend, it slit pupils contract in the sun, saw Ben scream his name.

But all he could hear as his own pounding heart as his hands lifted the gun, aimed briefly, and fired.

_______________________________________________________________________ 

She seem to hang in the air as the bullet ploughed through her chest in a spurt of blood, still propelled towards the net where her friends lay dead, suffocated underwater. She fell to the deck, her tail slipping over the rail, pulling her down into the watery world once more. Blood clouded the water, a beautiful scarlet cloud. She slipped in to the dark shadows of the ocean, her silver hair somehow as dark as the deepest depths of the ocean, the sun no longer reflected in her eyes.

*          *          *

The child ran ahead of its mother, it’s feet pounding the white sand underfoot.

“Caleigh, don’t run so fast!” her mother laughed as her daughter ran across the seashore, the white sun lighting the perfect turquoise sea. Caleigh tumbled down a dune with a shriek, then got up to run again, her bucket and shovel slapping against her legs.

Ahead, she saw a dark splotch in the shining beach. She ran towards it, curious of what it was. It looked like a huge fish, its back towards her. She crept closer.  She saw a flash of silver, billowing over the white sands. She squatted down next to the fish, leaning down…

She saw a face, youthful and naïve, even in death. The eyes, once full of laughter, now were clouded and cold.

Her ribs, which had always been visible, do to hunger, now seemed even more prominent, the flesh hanging loosely off her bones.

A seagull stood over the curled mermaid, watching her with sorrowful eyes. It turned towards the sun and flapped off over the ocean, as if delivering a message of grave news.

Caleigh stared down at the girl fish. Her bucket and shovel slipped from her hands. And, for a reason no one in the world could ever comprehend, she began to cry. She sobbed over the dead mermaid, tears raining down on the sand, that, for just a moment, turned silver in the sun’s innocent light.
When on all the world the sun has set
The time will come for man to pay his debt
To the earth and to the sky
And to the ocean he let die
And as the world falls into chaos
The pride and boasts the led man to believe he was boss
Will cease to be his blind fold
As he realizes that, in the end, Silver is worth far more than Gold.